Beard: Marvel mines the mysterious for more movies

After a box office blockbuster with a little-known property like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” is there anything Marvel can’t do? Face front, True Believers – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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Reports have surfaced recently that Marvel Studios is prepping not only the long-discussed “Doctor Strange” feature – the character was name-dropped in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” – but also another enigmatic entry from the weirder corner of the comic book universe, “The Inhumans.” Both concepts are identifiable to Marvel’s zombie plague of readers, but virtual unknowns to John Q. Public — but if “Guardians” proved anything, movie audiences aren’t too concerned about recognition factor in their Marvel Studios appetite.

Doctor Strange is the premiere supernatural character in Marvel’s stable, representing a genre that the film universe hasn’t yet tapped. He’s an oldie – debuting in 1963 – but the good doctor’s range extends to countless dimensions beyond our own, and enemies that make Tom Hiddleston’s Loki seem like Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash – or Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin. It’s a magical area for Marvel that could provide them with yet another avenue to print money, if they can cast the Strange film with engaging stars and otherworldly vistas like those of Strange’s co-creator, artist Steve Ditko.

The Inhumans plant their flag more on the science fiction side of the street than anything. Created in 1965 as foils, then friends, for the Fantastic Four, the oddball group of super-humans somehow slips through the licensing restrictions of FF characters to 20th Century Fox and could easily offer the same weirdo team-vibe as the Guardians of the Galaxy do for Marvel Studios. The Inhumans are basically a royal family of mutated humans that live in isolation from the rest of the world and possess amazing powers, as well as sometimes-hideous defects. Think X-Men but with more a more regal air and an incredible playing field.

There’s good times ahead for both Marvel fans and an unsuspecting film-going populace: they’ve barely even touched upon Man-Thing yet.